Oby Ezekwesili Tackles Atiku Over Claim Of EMT Headship Under Obasanjo

A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has asked the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to desist from claiming to be the Head of the Economic Management Team (EMT) under the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

Atiku was Vice President under former President Obasanjo while Ezekwesili served in different capacities during Obasanjo administration between 1999 and 2007 including being a Minister of Solid Minerals Development, and Education at different times.

Atiku had on Monday in the course of his campaign engagements for the 2023 presidential election, claimed that as Head of EMT while he was vice president, he was instrumental in designing a private sector revival strategy and advocated for the opening of the economy for private sector investments in several sectors, which resulted in tremendous progress.

But, responding to the claim, Ezekwesili, in a post on her Twitter handle on Tuesday, said Atiku was never the Head of the EMT under Obasanjo administration, hence he should stop misleading the public with the ‘absurd lie’.

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The former Minister turned activist wrote: “Dear former Vice President Atiku, please ask the handlers of your @Twitter account to stop misleading the public. You were never the Head of the Economic Management Team.

“This absurd Lie does you no good at all. Please ask your Team to stop it.
Happy New Year. Wish you well.✍🏾”

LEADERSHIP reports that Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili is an economic policy expert, an advocate for transparency, accountability, good governance and human capital development, a humanitarian and an activist.

She is a former vice president for the World Bank’s Africa region, co-founder and founding director of Transparency International, co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls Movement and also the founder of #FixPolitics Initiative, a research-based citizen-led initiative, the School of Politics Policy and Governance (SPPG), and Human Capital Africa.

LEADERSHIP’s attempts to get a reaction from Atiku camp on the development proved abortive as his multiple spokespersons were not forthcoming at press time.